


A Call For Help

by orphan_account



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Depression, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Link Neal - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2015-12-03
Packaged: 2018-05-04 15:59:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5339957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Link is suffering and feels alone until he finds a kindred spirit</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Fan

**Author's Note:**

> No offense to Link's wife in this fiction. It's been in my head a while so I decided to write it.
> 
> I've been on the fence that this was going to be a Rhink fic or a non Rhink.
> 
> I decided to go non Rhink with this one because I feel like I can tell the story better in this setting.

Link sat in his living room and sighed. His once chaotic house was now deathly quiet. He looked at his hand and fixated on his wedding ring, he let out a long laboured breath then glanced upward to the coffee table where the wedding and engagement rings of his wife lay. He stared at them but this time there were no tears, he had simply ran out of tears. He looked back again at his own ring, contemplating if he should remove it. It had been 3 months since she left and he still couldn't face the thought of removing his ring or even touching the ones that belonged to her.

He lifted his laptop onto his knee and began mindlessly browsing the web. He ended up on his and his business partner, Rhett's, community website. He glanced and smiled at the fan art and nice messages people left about them, but one post stood out. A post entitled "My life shattered recently, thanks to R&L for giving me strength". Curious Link opened the post and began to read.

  _Last year I lost everything I held dear, I was blamed and made to feel worthless by someone who was supposed to love me. I felt alone and empty until I stumbled onto GMM and Rhett and Link. Now I owe them everything. They made me smile again and gave me hope._

Link felt compelled to reply. He wrote a simple yet puzzling message; I'm glad we helped you gain strength when needed, sadly, I know what it's like to feel this way.

Within a few seconds Link's account got a new inbox message. Normally he wouldn't read them, after all he got so many a day from loyal fans, but this one came from the posts author and he felt compelled to read it.

“Link, thank you for the reply, but your wording.. Are you okay?”

Link sat with tears forming in his eyes, it surprised him, and before he knew it he had replied. “Not really...feeling blue.”

Again another message came through with a short reply.

“You should talk to a loved one.”

Link leaned back against the chair. He was alone. Rhett was away on a family vacation and unavailable.

He took to his laptop again.

“No loved one’s here. All alone.”

Another reply came through.

“What about Rhett?”

“He's on vacation with his family. If he knew how I was feeling, he would be on the first plane home. He needs time with his family so I'll let him believe I'm okay until he's back.”

Link waited to see if his community member would reply to him but he was regretting saying anything at all. For all he knew she could be posting their messages on social media.

Before he could think about it any longer, he got another message.

“Link, I don’t know you and you don’t know me. But if you are being this open to me, then maybe you are telling yourself you need to open up. If you are hurting don’t bottle it up, that is something I did and it nearly destroyed me. Please find someone to talk to.”

She’s right, Link thought to himself. He got to his feet and put the laptop onto the chair before heading into the kitchen. He got a mug from the cupboard and began to make himself a cup of coffee. As he stood waiting for the machine to finish, he went through a list of names in his head of people he could reach out to. The last thing he wanted to do was to bother Rhett, he would normally be his first choice but he bent over backwards for Link when things first went South with his wife. His Mom was a no as he knew she was already worried about him enough and had her own issues with health.

He was brought out of thought by the sound of the coffee machine beeping. He stared at the steaming cup of water and realised he had ran out of coffee beans. Link snapped. He threw the cup of water across the kitchen and watched it shatter against the wall. The machine was next, being yanked off the kitchen surface it crashed onto the floor spilling its hot water contents all over. Link couldn’t stop. Tears streaming down his face he trashed his kitchen in an emotional rage. Exhausted and bleeding from walking and grabbing broken glass and crockery, he slid down the wall that joined the kitchen to the living area. Curling himself up he sobbed until he didn’t even have the energy to expel another tear and he fell asleep.

The next day he woke to the noise of his phone’s alarm in the living room. He sat up and tried to stretch out the sore areas from sleeping on the hard floor with limited luck. Surveying the state he had made only made him feel worse. The shattered remains were a visual metaphor for how he felt inside. Link managed to make it into the living room without cutting his feet anymore than they already were. He slumped back into the chair and opened his laptop again. It was still on his inbox page from his fan site and to his surprise there was another message waiting for him.

“I’m going to take you not replying as you went to seek someone, but Link you have me worried tonight and I know it’s none of my business but please just let me know if you need anything okay?”

He sighed and decided he needed to clean the kitchen before he went insane with all the mess around him. It took a lot longer than he expected and by the time it was back into order, the sun was already setting. His phone beeped with a notification and upon opening it he saw an instagram notification that Rhett had posted something. He opened the app and saw a picture of a happy looking Rhett and his family. Link was happy for him but it hurt his already broken heart.

He put his phone in his pocket and searched for something to drink. The refrigerator was bare and he had broken every cup and glass he had. He reached and opened the final cupboard in the kitchen, hoping for some forgotten bottle of juice or soda. Instead he found a rather fancy looking bottle of bourbon. Link rarely drank, mostly only in social events and even then only ever one or two. However he had no intention of not taking advantage of the bronze coloured liquid to help numb his feelings and took the whole bottle with him and his laptop to the living room.

A couple hours later and Link was typing furiously. Three quarters of the large bourbon bottle drank, Link was not very coherent with his words, the liquor taking effect. He had decided to send a message to the woman from his fan page again, after all she had asked him to let him know if he needed anything and he did. However he was not quite sure what it was he needed, he felt that he needed to talk to her anyway.

“Hi. So it’s Link againnn. Erm yes ssso I’ve had a bit to drinkk and I have no one else to talk to, so, you onlinee?”

He hit send and waited, glugging down another mouthful of the strong liquid. Before he could take another swig he got a reply.

“Yes I’m here. You don’t have to be alone”

Link took another drink.

“So dooo you want to hEar my story? Sorry thtat I can’t promise you a happy endinggg though”

“I think it might help me understand, yes. It might not seem it, but talking really does help.”

Another mouthful and he started typing.

“Ever been married? Well Iii have and now I’mm not. Well I still am technicallyy but she’s no longer here. So well the past year has been terribel she didn’t want to screw me anyyymore and I could nott do rigght even though I tried so hardd to be a goodd husband. Wellll she foundd someone else and I caught them both in the act 4 motnh ago. I triedd to forgive her but a month later she told me she waas moving back home and taking the kidsss. I havee nothing. I wokred so hard. I didnd’t want a broken familee and now they are over the other side of the country and I will rarelyy see them and I canntt cope I just wanttt to go to sleep and not wake up”

The liquor didn’t numb the pain at all, it made it worse. Link once more was inconsolable, his laptop drenched with tears, he could no longer see the screen through the amount he was crying.

“Link I’m so sorry. I’ve recently been through divorce, it’s horrible but please don’t fall into despair. It’s impossible to see right now but it will get easier”

He found his way to the bathroom and relieved himself. Whilst there he stared at his reflection in his medicine cabinet that hung above the sink. His one radiant blue eyes were dark and cold looking. Bags under his eyes made it look like he had not had a proper sleep for weeks. Hair matted and uncombed. His head pounded. He opened the cabinet and browsed the range of pain relief and medicines, grabbing a handful of the different tubes on offer.

He slouched in the chair and read over the message from the woman from the website again.

“I know of a way to make it easssier. MYy way out. My kidss don’tt need such a apathetic excusse for a father anyway.”

Link stared at the 4 tubes he brought from the bathroom. He could barely make out what they said, he didn’t care. He opened them and swallowed a handful of one of the tubes.

“Link, give me your cell number”

Link didn’t respond though he managed to read the message.

“Link. Please”

Came another request after 5 minutes of waiting.

 **  
**  


The woman sat staring at his laptop willing Link to respond. She stared at the clock, “I’ll give him 5 more minutes” she thought to herself. Nothing.

Without hesitation she opened up her browser and started searching for the soonest flight to LA. She found one that was due to leave in an hour and a half. It was just enough time for her to get the the airport and get checked in.

She booked the flight and grabbed her passport before rushing out the door to drive to the airport which she arrived to in record time.

She had made it in time and was now sat in the plane. She sent Link another message:

“Link I’m on my way, if you get this please tell me your address”

Again no response.

The plane started to taxi away from the terminal and she furiously started searching every possible string to try and find where Link lived, being asked several times by the flight attendant to turn off her phone. Then she found a possible lead. A tax claim for a Charles Lincoln Neal III of Encino CA. It was the best she had. She screencapped the address and then switched her phone to flight mode before the flight attendant asked her again in fear of being removed from the plane. She had managed to send a few tweets to some of Rhett and Link’s crew that she knew of, and was hopeful one of them would see it and take it seriously and go check on Link.

The flight seemed to take an eternity, it made her wish several times that she lived closer to the U.S than England where she was from. When the plane landed she made sure she was first at the doors waiting for them to be opened. When they did she ran as fast as she could through the building towards immigration. Her phone connected to the airport wifi and she checked her inboxes, nothing. She felt sick with fear, her heart racing and undoubtedly she would look suspicious to immigration in her current state. Thankfully she was permitted through security without much issue.

Before she knew it she was in a taxi on her way to the address she found on the internet, begging for it to be his current address. She was confident that there would only be one Charles Lincoln Neal III in the Encino area and she recalled Link mentioning this is the part of town that he lived in a GMM episode.

The taxi pulled up in a cul-de-sac outside a small looking home with a mini van on the drive. It looked like the minivan that she had seen in a video. She thanked the driver and ran to the front door banging hard on it when she reached it. No one answered. She tried it, locked. There was a window to the left and she looked in to try and and see but couldn’t see anything that would give away an occupant.

She ran around the backyard of the house and looked through the glass sliding doors that led onto the porch.

“Link!” she shouted as she banged on the glass.

But she couldn’t hear anything from inside, then she spotted something which scared her to her core.


	2. Near Loss

An arm could be seen on the floor next to the couch with a mass of dark hair. She tried to open the doors but they were also locked. She could see no other visible signs of a way for her to get into the property. She shouted for help but no one answered or came to her aid. Frantically she ran around Link’s yard for anything she could attempt to break the glass with, thankfully she was able to dislodge a rather large stone that was used in a flower bed.   
Throwing it at the glass with all the strength she had worked. There was just enough of the glass broke for her to squeeze through and gain entry into the property. She ran around the couch that she saw and knelt at the figure she saw on the floor. It was Link.  
She checked to see if he was breathing, thankfully he was but it was very weak. Looking around it was easy to see that the mixture of the pain medication and the alcohol where what was caused Link’s collapse. She wasn’t sure if she was doing right but she pulled Link onto his side and put her fingers in his mouth and into his throat to try and get him to vomit up some of the medication he had took, hoping that he only recently took it and that removing it from his stomach would help.   
She dialled 911 as she continued to tend to Link.

“Hello 911 What’s your emergency”

“My friend, he’s taken medication and alcohol and he’s unconscious”

“Is he still breathing?”

“Yes he is…. no.. he’s stopped. LINK! Nooo, please noo!”

“You are going to have to breath for him and give him CPR. I’ll talk you through it”

The woman managed to stay calm enough and followed the 911 dispatcher’s instructions. It felt like hours but Link coughed and spluttered and took a breath for himself as the paramedics arrived.

 

In the hospital the woman was sat in the waiting area fiddling with Link’s glasses that she picked up from his home when the doctor came to share about Link’s condition.

“He’s very lucky to be alive. He’s awake now but having one of the worst hangovers someone could possibly have.”

“Can I see him?”

“It’s only suppose to be family visiting after 9, are you family?”

The woman swallowed hard

“Yeah, well, I’m his girlfriend”

“Oh then by all means, he’s down the corridor room 312 on your right. He needs to relax though and try to get him to drink that pitcher of water on his bedside.”

The woman nodded and headed towards Link’s room. She felt bad about lying to the doctor but at the present time she was the only one who knew about what had happened to Link and she had no contacts for anyone else.  
She knocked on the door before opening it slowly. It was a decent sized room with one bed in the centre and chairs either side. Link turned his head slowly almost as if his neck hurt. He squinted his eyes towards the woman trying to make her out. She moved to his bedside and handed Link his glasses. He reached for them and put them on without taking his eyes off her, as she came into focus he looked confused as to whom was standing in front of him.

“Erm, hi?” He said with a croaky voice. “Do I know you?”

“Well not really, but I’m the one you’ve been speaking with on the website.”

Link still looked confused.

“Wha? But how are you here?”

“When you sent the message about wanting to go to sleep and not waking up and about having a solution and your kids not needed you, I panicked.”

Link looked shocked as if he didn’t believe what she was telling him.

“Wait wait. I said I wanted to die?”

“Well not in so many words but it was implied. Then you stopped responding and I got on the first flight I could”

“Flight? From where?

“England”

“What!? Really.. I don’t know what to say. You shouldn’t of traveled all that way. I’m hungover and feel like shit but I’m fine.”

She looked at Link in disbelief.

“Did the doctor not tell you anything?”

Link shrugged “He just said I’ve been lucky and I’ll have one hell of a headache”

The woman started crying. She couldn’t help it, she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Link catching him by surprise but he didn’t protest. She sobbed into the crook of his neck, barely able to speak. Link tried to reassure her, rubbing her back while she continued to cry. Everything, all the panic, the stress and ordeal of it all just came out of her at that point and Link let her get it all out. He was confused but he knew better not to push her away.  
When she was finally able to contain herself she stepped back.

“I’m sorry, it just all built up I guess.”

“I’m sorry too, I didn’t mean for you to think you needed to travel all the way for me”

“Link! You stopped breathing! I had to give you CPR, you would of died tonight.”

Link froze. He now understood the woman’s reaction, he was dumbfounded.

“I.. you saved my life.”

He sat up and reached out for her, pulling her into an embrace.

“I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry I put you through this. But thank you. Thank you so much for being there for me.”

He held her tight and joined with her in shedding tears.

They clung onto each other until they both had stopped crying. The woman took a seat beside Link’s bed pouring him a glass of water that the doctor had asked her to make sure he drank.  
He did as she requested and drank the whole cup in one go.

“It’s late” he said looking out the window at the night sky.

“Yeah it will be close to midnight now. I hope they don’t come and kick me out, I don’t have anywhere to go.”

“You really did just fly here for me didn’t you?”

“Yeah. But I’ve just remembered, I need to apologise, I had to break your glass door to get in.”

Link laughed

“I think a broken door is the least of my concerns right now. You could of trashed my house and sold all my belongings, you get a free pass when you save someone’s life you know” 

They both laughed and it help raise the spirits in the room a little.

“Listen, there is a couch by that wall, go lay down and let’s both try get some sleep. I think we have both been through enough for one day.”

The woman nodded and stood.

“Can I get another hug? It’s okay if it makes you uncomfortable, it’s just, well it’s nice to feel you breath and hear your heartbeat”

Link smiled and opened his arms as an invitation. The woman stepped into his arms and gave him a gentle hug, positioning her head so it lay on his chest rather than over his shoulder. Link brought his hand and rested it on her head, caressing her through her hair. He felt her get heavy and noticed she was drifting off. Link shuffled over in the bed.

“After the shock of today, I think you have the right to listen to my heart as much as you like.”

She smiled and kicked off her shoes, bringing her legs onto the bed beside Link, never removing her head off his chest. Link pulled the blanked over the both of them, removing his glasses and reached to the light switch at the side of his bed.

“Hey, I’ve realised, I don’t know your name”

The woman smiled up at Link, just able to make out his piercing eyes in the night.

“Anja” she said.

“Well Anja, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Sleep well”


	3. Guardian angel

Link woke to the warmth of the sun on his face. Bright blue skies and a high sun made him realise it was already well into the day. He looked down. Anja remained clinging to him through her sleep. Her head still rested upon Link’s chest. He traced her long ebony hair with his hand from her crown to down her back. Anja stirred with the feeling of Link’s hand stroking her back.

“Morning”

“Good morning. How do you feel?” Anja asked as she sat upright in Link’s hospital bed.

“Surprisingly not as bad as I expected”

“I’m very surprised I wasn’t asked by one of the nurses to get out your bed” Anja laughed

Link smiled and looked at her. She had make up smeared down her face from shedding so many tears the night before, the sight caused Link to chuckle at her. He sat up and wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her as tight as he dared before having tears form in his eyes one more.

“You saved me, my guardian angel.”

Anja held him close. She couldn’t imagine how he felt knowing that he almost died the previous night. All she could do was be here to support him when he needed it.

The door to the room opened and a rather stern looking woman entered.

“Mr Neal, you are suppose to be resting. And erm Miss? I understand you are Mr Neal’s girlfriend but visiting hours don’t start till 1. I’ll have to ask you to leave until then.”

The woman glared at Anja and then looked at Link who was still embracing his raven haired saviour.

“I’ll give you 10 more minutes then I will return. I must insist that you have left by this time.”

The nurse walked out the room. Link sighed and rested back into his bed.

“So I gained an angel and a girlfriend in one night then?” he said smirking to himself.

“I’m sorry. They were not going to let me see you last night unless I was family or”

“It’s fine I get it, I was only joking.” Link cut her off.

“I guess I should go to the airport and let you get your strength back.”

“You’re leaving? You can’t stay any longer?”

“Well I only bought a one way ticket but accommodation was the last thing of my mind at the time and well honestly I probably couldn’t afford to stay long and still have enough to get home.”

Link reached out and held her hand.

“Please, I know that this will sound crazy because I barely know you but please, I don’t know how to explain it but.. I just need you. Don’t go. Not yet”

Anja squeezed Link’s hand in hers and smiled at him.

“Okay. I’ll stay for as long as I can”

Link did his best to force a smile, the weight of everything was clearly starting to get on top of him. He jumped when the door to his room flew open to reveal the stern looking nurse once more.

“Right Mr Neal. Time for you to relax”

The nurse turned her attention to Anja

“Miss, time for you to leave.”

Anja sighed and squeezed Link’s hand again.

“I really don’t want to leave him. I just feel that...”

“Miss! Your boyfriend nearly died yesterday. He needs some peace and quiet to gather his strength.”

“No!” Link said standing up from his bed. “I’ll recover better from home”

“Fine, your choice. You can go home as long as your girlfriend signs to say she will responsible for you.”

The nurse turned and left the room. When she passed through the door, Link collapsed back onto the bed, Anja lunging for him to try and steady him.

“Gosh I feel so drained. So much for not feeling too bad”

“As rude as her attitude is, the nurse is right Link. You need to rest.”

“I know but I don’t want to be alone and I really don’t want to be stuck in this room. Please. Will you stay with me at my place? Just till I’m on my feet again?”

  
“Of course. Let’s get you sorted and get you home.”


End file.
